if you struggle with feeling good

“Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.

You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.

And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert, from Eat, Pray, Love

Your New Chapter

If you struggle with feeling good, with allowing in happiness, the best thing I can recommend is that you start keeping a journal where you start telling the unvarnished truth about your experience.

But don’t just write about what’s the matter.

In fact, I’ll be bold here and encourage you to use the blank page to explore what you really want to experience in your life, what you hope for, what you dream of creating.

If you can’t find words, then find images from books and magazines, cut them out, and paste them in your journal.

Scribble. Juxtapose. Cut. Paste. Paint all over it.

See if you can just allow pure feeling onto the paper. Don’t try to interpret anything or worry about what it means.

The inner critic will announce itself. That’s OK. Write down everything the critic says without judging. It will quiet down.

You’ll start hearing other ideas and thoughts. Write down those, too.

Keep all of this private. Don’t feel you have to explain it or what you’re doing to yourself or anyone else. Certainly not anyone else!

When I was an art therapist in working in the psych ward, I did this with my patients.

In our first session, I would bring their medical chart, but also a big, blank sketchbook and brightly colored pens, markers, pretty papers.

I’d begin the session by asking, What is right with you?

This would always catch them by surprise.

Don’t you mean: What’s wrong with me? What got me into this place?

I already know what’s wrong with you. I’ve read your chart. And we can get into that later if you want.

But first, tell me what’s working in your life. What’s good. What’s right with you?

They would start telling me what was good, what was already working, and I’d write it down—inside the blank sketchbook.

It was as if someone turned on the sun in the room. Everything got brighter. The mood of the patient, the energy in the room shifted.

Then I handed them the blank sketchbook, chock full of evidence of their own worthiness, goodness, resourcefulness.

This is yours. Here is where we’ll write your new life story. This is your next chapter. We’ll do it together.

And then it was their turn to author their book. To play with the paints and collage, write with colored markers and sprinkle glitter around with abandon.

I didn’t know therapy could be so fun, they said.

Oh, this isn’t really therapy, I would tell them.

Honestly? I’m just showing you what I did to feel better when I was sitting where you are. This is what helped me most.

Today’s Journal Prompts:

What makes me happy right now is…

The happy that I need to insist upon right now is….

I maintain my happy by…

I will swim upward into my happiness by…

Want to explore all of this more in depth?

I’d love to be your Guidess…

…in Dreaming On Paper — the workshop helps you excavate your own true desires, innate wisdom, and intuition, with ease, gentleness and joy.

8 comments

I love the posters that you create for your newsletters and challenges. Which tool do you used to design them? I am a blogger too and have been thinking of designing posters for my blog and facebook page. But, not having any design experience I am stuck.

I read through, and worked through ALL of the journal prompts. This paragraph:

For anyone who creates on demand for a living, for anyone trying to create something out of nothing, for anyone who wants to know themselves and get below the surface of things: keeping a creative sketchbook is a sorcerer’s tool.

…made a light-bulb flicker on and glow bright.

The KEY WORDS for me was: “keeping a creative sketchbook is a sorcerer’s tool”. Anyone who knows about sorcery knows that magical tools are essential in making the magic work!

I will never look at a sketchbook the same, EVER again.

The sketchbook is where the magic begins! You then can develop (literally and metaphorically) all the charms, rituals, alchemical changes you desire… through the written words, the ideas and formulas for creating anything… a better healthy life, art, or spiritual connection.

Just wanted to say ONCE AGAIN. How much I enjoy your emails, blog posts and ideas. Right now I’m in north central Florida, in the middle of horse county, with my own horses. Photographing horses and their people. Selling a little, enjoying the journey.Your most recent email/blog gave me a wonderful lift today, opening my eyes to the many blessings in my life.

Hola! I'm Lisa Sonora. ME: an American artist and author living in Mexico. YOU: Crave more creativity, more meaning, more adventures — and are tired of the same old stuff getting in your way. Creativity + Travel + Courage has been the theme of my blog since 2002, and sums up my life mission: to dare to make my life a creative adventure and to help women create more, stress less, and take meaningful, once-in-a-lifetime creative journeys. Welcome to my virtual studio. It’s messy in here.
But not as messy as my real studio. My real studio is located in Oaxaca, Mexico, and you’re invited to come visit and create.